Canada captures silver in luge team relay

Canada earned its second Olympic luge medal in dramatic fashion as the relay team raced to a time of two minutes 24.872 seconds.

The powerhouse Germans won gold in 2:24.517 while Austria took bronze in 2:24.988.

The Canadians mobbed doubles duo Walker and Snith after their doubles run put Canada atop the standings with just the Austrians and Germans to go.

The medal was redemption for Calgary’s Sam Edney, Alex Gough and Justin Snith and Cochrane, Alta., native Tristan Walker, who combined finished fourth in the relay when it made its Olympic debut four years ago — a mere tenth of a second back of third.

The foursome got bumped up to bronze for what would have been Canada’s first luge podium at a Games in December when two Russian competitors were among dozens of athletes from the host nation stripped of their 2014 results and banned for life for alleged doping violations by the International Olympic Committee.

But the Canadians were once again pushed back to fourth following the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s recent decision to overturn the punishment for 28 of those athletes, including lugers Albert Demchenko and Tatiana Ivanova.